From: Dave Thomas <Dave@...>
Date: 2001-06-16T12:36:22+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:16527] Re: alarm()

Joseph McDonald <joe@vpop.net> writes:

> Is there a way to schedule a SIGALRM in ruby?
> I ask because I want to abort a system() call if
> it does not complete in "x" seconds.  It appears that
> the "timeout" class does not work when executing a
> system call.

Tacky, but you could start a thread that sends you a SIGALRM:

   Thread.new do
      sleep 2
      Process.kill "ALRM", $$
   end

   begin
     line = gets
     puts "You said #{line}"
   rescue SignalException
     puts "too slow!"
   end


Regards


Dave